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Re: Would Byzantines sell well?

I dream from byzantines, late antique, 6-7th century against persians, german tribes, arabs and civil war fractions....

Re: Would Byzantines sell well?

Haha, sounds similar to my little collection. The Vikings are considering raiding the Aztecs, but Tecumseh's men may beat them to the punch! :P

I would buy Byzantine sets simply because they are very useful for most scenarios, but do I dream of them? No. My dreams have Tlaxcala warriors, Japanese Bushi, Genpei War Samurai, Hittite Spearman and charioteers (that are NOT based off Egyptian iconography, *coughCaesarcough*), Mongolian civilians (especially women), Ghanaian/Malian warriors for Sundjata's campaigns, and Sforza's adventures around Milano. My dreams are a little exotic though. But basically if they appear in an Age of Empires II campaign, I am interested. :joy:

Re: Would Byzantines sell well?

Graham Korn
This is probably an unanswerable question but what do people feel about the appeal of Byzantines? Manufacturers seem to be wary of them. Obviously, Orion had a go but produced sets that tried to cover too much and had production issues, Hat showed some sketches but don't seem to have progressed the project and Strelets says definitely not. Are Byzantines cursed in some way? If no Roman sets existed or there was very limited coverage and a manufacturer had to decide whether to do Romans or Byzantines, of course, they would do Romans but we are pretty well served with Romans from all eras and it seems to me that Byzantines would be as good a choice as any, better than some. Perhaps they are just too vast and manufacturers are not prepared to take the risk on the multiple sets that would be needed. Although the same could be said of the WSS range that is currently being rolled out, even more vast if anything. Strelets have already told us that the golden age of large volume sales disappeared long ago. More generally it does interest me what prompts a manufacturer to choose what to do next. Is it personal interest in a subject? Interest demonstrated on this forum? Scientific Market research? Playing safe and ensuring that at least some of your production is focussed on tried and tested eras? I was very disappointed and a bit surprised to see Strelets rule out Byzantines as when it comes to medievals Nikephorian Byzantines would complement their existing range providing enemies for Normans in Italy and Islamic armies in the near East.
Hi,

well with all due respect there's sometimes no good or logic reason why things are or aren't.

But yes - Linear-A now covers this range.

Re: Would Byzantines sell well?

I am very pleased to see the planned sets by Linear A but I don't agree that they are covering this range, like the Romans there are at least 3 separate eras and a huge range of troop types so what has been done so far and what is promised has barely scratched the surface. As for the decision to produce a certain set, you are right the choices sometimes seem to defy logic, I know there is always someone somewhere who will want some of the most esoteric subjects but there are some seem to have real stabs in the dark, for example I be very interested to know who bought Russian warrior monk artillery!

Re: Would Byzantines sell well?

Afternoon Gentlemen,
I believe that a couple of sets of Byzantines would sell quite well if folks simply knew more about them. At the height of their power, the Byzantines had faced several major powers in the region. Arabs, Normans, The Rus, several nomad tribes, and Turks. I have studied Byzantine history in depth now for nearly two decades and the stuff is brilliant reading if one is interested. For a thousand years almost the Empire stood against all enemies and weathered them each in turn. Ultimately it boils down to which period or periods would get a produced. The Justinian period was certainly busy with the re-conquest of so much of the former empire. I believe though that we could still use Late roman figures for this period (just my opinion). For me the real period of Byzantine greatness stemmed from about 900 till 1100. Here you get the battles with the above mentioned factions. I would love to see them produced but know better than to get my hopes up. Hope you guys are all well and weathering the plague.
Cheers from the Old North State. Ole Ben.

Re: Would Byzantines sell well?

I agree that late Romans could be used for 6th century Byzantines and, personally, am more interested in 9th to 11th century. Also the later era would complement Strelets existing range better.